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Making Waves

Blaming Democrats For the U-S Shutdown

By Dave Carr

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So last Friday night, the
American government shut down.Well,
not exactly; it kept operating for the most part, but people didn’t get
paid.This happens from time to time in
the U.S.--a
failure to approve a year-long budget that leads to wrangling over these
stop-gap measures that produces even more wrangling as two increasingly
ideologically opposed sides try to twist the moment to their political
advantage.What was interesting last
week was that early on, voices on all sides were expressing ideas, needs,
wants, and some tepid co-operation.But
the closer we got to last Friday at midnight, the more the hopefulness and
suggestions turned to hopelessness and finger-pointing.Ah, the finger-pointing; at some point, we
need a villain.If you really aren’t
paying attention, then yes, the villain is Trump, Trump, always Trump with a
dose of Christian conservative Republican thrown in.And they’re great villains, real villains
most of the time.But last Friday
night, along with Trump’s failure to lead, I blamed the DemocratsThe Democrats wanted immigration tied to the
resolution, although their immigration demand has nothing to do with
spending.And what cinched it for me
was the very simple fact that although there is a proposal to save the Dreamers; although the legislative
details have been assembled, there IS
NO ACTUAL LEGISLATION!There
was nothing on the floor actually ready to attach to the spending bill!It
just doesn’t exist!It was a
crass, shallow, greedy, grasping move by the Democrats in the Senate, and it failed.It was utterly pointless.And around the world, nations are asking
themselves, “Is this the great United
States we’ve always turned to for help?” What an embarrassment!It’s sad, it’s political and it just stinks.